Workers, exposed to the danger of falling, often wear safety harnesses or belts. The safety devices can be attached to a lifeline or lanyard. The lanyard in turn is securely affixed to a convenient anchorage point. Should the worker fall, his descent is quickly checked by the lanyard. A rapid deceleration of the falling worker caused by a sudden taughtness in the lanyard could result in serious bodily injury.
To reduce the potential for bodily injury, shock absorbing lanyards have developed to absorb a substantial portion of the kinetic energy generated during a fall. In this manner, the worker is decelerated gradually rather than being brought to an abrupt halt. To provide the gradual deceleration lanyards employ fall arrest energy absorbers such as elastic fibers, and tear away elements.
U.S. Patent Publication 2008/0190691, Shock Absorbing Lanyards, Tanaka, discloses a shock absorbing lanyard made as a one-piece webbing. The shock absorbing lanyard has a tubular-shaped high strength outer sheet and a high elongation member inside the outer sheet. The outer sheet and the high elongation member are secured together at connection locations. The high elongation member is generally not secured to the outer sheet between the connection locations. The high elongation member can be formed from partially oriented yarn.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,066, Lanyard with Integral Fall Arrest Energy Absorber, O'Dell, discloses a shock absorbing lanyard having an integral fall arrest energy absorber formed in a one-piece woven, knitted or braided construction wherein partial oriented yarn (poy) fibers and high modulus yarn fibers are combined integrally in one section and are separate in another section. In the other section the high modulus yarn fibers preferable form a sheet around a core of POY fibers.